Systems and methods for automatically generating scoring scenarios with video of event

ABSTRACT

Methods and systems are disclosed herein for automatically indicating, during display of video of an event, actions in event that could satisfy side-game scoring scenarios. This may be accomplished by a media application that generates a live video of an event and retrieves data relating to a current status of a side-game in which a user is participating. The media application determines that a next play of the event could affect an outcome of the side-game and, in response, determines a particular action within the event that could affect the outcome of the side-game. The media application generates for display, within the video, an overlay on top of a playing space of the event, the overlay indicating where the particular action would need to occur to affect the outcome of the side-game.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/017,532 filed Jun. 25, 2018, which is a continuation of Ser. No.16/016,084 filed Jun. 22, 2018, each of which is hereby incorporated byreference herein in its entirety, respectively.

BACKGROUND

Users often watch video of an event and desire supplemental contentrelated to the event. For example, a user may watch a match betweenelectronic sports participants and desire to see statistical informationrelated to the performance of participants in the event. In anotherexample, fantasy sports are common side-games in which individualsparticipate during amateur and professional sports seasons. Fantasysports are typically games played by individuals that choose players,i.e., professional athletes, from a sports league to comprise thatindividual's roster and compete against other users based on thestatistics generated by the players during real-life sports contests.For example, an individual may join a service that allows the individualto compete against other players subscribed to the same service.Typically, each user selects a subset of all the players in acorresponding professional league as the user's fantasy roster. Then, ina given time period (e.g., during a week or day), the statisticalperformance of each player on an individual's roster is used todetermine, for example, how many points the individual scored in thatweek as compared to other players in the fantasy sports league.Typically, one individual is matched up against one or more otherparticipants in a fantasy league for a given time period to determinehow well that individual did in the time period. Often times, anindividual selects a subset of a roster to be active and benches otherplayers for a given time period (e.g., a week

For individuals that participate in a side-game, e.g., fantasy sportscontest, the performance of the players on the individual's activeroster can be very important to the individual. As side-games havebecome increasingly popular, users frequently view sports programming inorder to assess the play of participants important to a user'sside-game, e.g., a fantasy sports roster, as opposed to watching whetheror not a particular team wins. Therefore, traditional commentary andadded features (e.g., statistical analyses displayed on-screen during agame), which normally concern the event as a whole, are of less interestto users viewing events to assess the outcome of their side-games, e.g.,to assess the play of members on a fantasy sports team. Moreover,without commentary or added features addressing particular players, itis often difficult for a user to determine how a member of his fantasyroster can score points for the user's fantasy team and determinewhether or not members of his fantasy team can change the outcome of aside-game, e.g., fantasy sports matchup. And tracking the individual'sperformance may be just as important to the individual, if not moreimportant, than the outcome of the event, e.g., live sporting eventbetween two professional teams or electronic sporting event such as afirst-person action tournament of multiplayer online battle arenatournament. In such cases, individuals desire opportunities to keeptrack of the performance of their roster and especially of the impact ofthe performance of their active players on the outcome of fantasy sportsmatchups.

SUMMARY

As the availability of technology continues to increase so does users'access to information at all times. In the space of electronic sportsmatches and events, e.g., first person action gaming or multiplayeronline battle arenas, the action moves quickly and viewer want constantupdates on the actions and performance of all user in the event. And asmore and more users participate in fantasy sports to supplement theirsports viewing, these users frequently consume sports video through adisplay device and, on a separate device, access information pertainingto their fantasy sports contest. Indeed, conventional presentation of alive sporting event is unable to account for a user's participation in afantasy sports contest, as video of the live sporting event is notpersonalized to account for a user's participation in fantasy sports.Thus, users often watch a live sporting event on one device whileaccessing information pertaining to their fantasy sports participationon a second device. Furthermore, users may not be aware when certainsporting events are in situations with the potential to impact theirfantasy sports matchups.

Accordingly, to overcome the problems of distracting user from an event,systems and methods are described herein for a media application thatdisplay supplemental information with an event. For example, systems andmethods disclosed allows users to watch a live sporting event withoutrequiring user access second devices to check on the status of thefantasy sports events. In some embodiments, systems and methods aredescribed herein for a media application that automatically detectsside-game, e.g., fantasy sports, scoring scenarios possible within alive sporting event and present information about those scenarios to auser watching the live sporting event. For example, a scoring scenariois a situation that is possible given the current circumstances of alive sporting event that has the potential to provide a user withfantasy sports points. These systems and methods also allow a user toidentify situations in various sporting events with different impacts onthe user's fantasy sports matchups. In some embodiments, a mediaapplication may generate for display a live video of an event. Forexample, a user may instruct a media application to generate for displaya current matchup between the San Francisco 49ers and the San DiegoChargers playing in the National Football League (“NFL”). The mediaapplication may retrieve data relating to a current status, at a currenttime, of a side-game in which a user is participating, the side-gamebeing based on the performance of participants in the event. Forexample, the media application may get information about a fantasysports matchup in which the user is participating such as a weeklyfantasy football match against another individual. The media applicationmay also determine, at the current time, that a next play of the eventcould affect an outcome of the side-game. For example, the mediaapplication may determine that the user is within 4 points of winningthe fantasy sports matchup. In response to determining that the nextplay could affect the outcome of the side-game, the media applicationmay determine a particular action within the sporting event that couldaffect the outcome of the side-game. For example, the media applicationmay determine that the user has a running back from the San Francisco49ers on the user's active fantasy roster and, based on the currentcircumstances of the match between the 49ers and the Chargers, theuser's running back is in position to score 6 points if the running backachieves a rushing touchdown. In some embodiments, the media applicationmay generate for display, within the video of the event, an overlay ontop of a playing space of the event, the overlay indicating where theparticular action would need to occur to affect the outcome of theside-game. For example, the media application may display a highlight onthe user's running back (e.g., a halo around the running back in red andgold) along with a marker at the end-zone (e.g., a red and gold line onthe goal line) along with textual annotation of the possible fantasysports implications.

In some aspects of the disclosure, systems and methods are described forautomatically indicating, during display of video of an event, e.g., alive sporting event, actions in the event that could satisfy side-game,e.g., fantasy sports, scoring scenarios. In some embodiments, a mediaapplication generates for display a video of the event. As describedabove, this could be a current match between the San Francisco 49ers andSan Diego Chargers. In some embodiments, the media application mayretrieve, from a memory, current status data of a side-game in which auser is participating. For example, the user may be in a fantasyfootball league and the media application may retrieve the currentstatus of the user's weekly matchup (e.g., the user's active roster, theuser's opponent's active roster, the current score for each user in thematchupfantasy matchup, etc.). In this example, the user's weeklymatchup is a fantasy sports event in which the user is participating.

In some embodiments, the media application may identify playersparticipating in the event from a roster maintained by the user for theside-game. For example, the media application may identify players fromthe user's fantasy team roster that play on either the San Francisco49ers or the San Diego Chargers and that are active on the user'sroster. In some embodiments, the media application may obtain a set ofrules that define scoring opportunities in the side-game for the user asa function of possible actions and players in the event. For example,the media application may determine that the user has an active runningback on his fantasy football roster that plays for the San Francisco49ers, and the media application may retrieve a rule that indicates thatthe user has a scoring opportunity if the user's running back rushes fora touchdown (e.g., the user may receive 6 points toward the user'sfantasy score for the week if the user's running back rushes for atouchdown).

In some embodiments, the media application may obtain data representingcurrent circumstances of the event. For example, the media applicationmay obtain information specifying the team with current possession ofthe football, the current line of scrimmage, the current players on thefield of play, the amount of time remaining in the live sporting event,the score of the professional teams in the live sporting event, etc. Insome embodiments, the media application may apply the set of rules tothe data representing the current circumstances of the event to identifypossible scoring scenarios in the side-game and locations on a playingspace of the event that correspond to the possible scoring scenarios.For example, if the user's active running back is currently on the fieldof play and the line of scrimmage is on the San Francisco 49ers' 6-yardline, then the set of rules may indicate that the user has a 6-pointscoring opportunity. Depending on the use case for the mediaapplication, the playing space of the event may be a physical playingspace such as a football field or a virtual playing space such as avirtual environment in an electronic sports game.

In some embodiments, the media application may further determine that,based on the score of side-game matchup, a 6-point scoring opportunitymay give the user the lead in the current side-game matchup. In someembodiments, the media application may generate for display, with thevideo of the event, information about the possible scoring scenariosincluding identification of the locations on the playing space of theevent that correspond to the possible scoring scenarios. For example,the media application may present a textual list of possible scoringopportunities (e.g., rushing touchdown scores 6 points) includinginformation indicating that the scoring opportunity occurs at the SanFrancisco 49ers' goal line.

The rules-based approach to identifying scoring opportunities for auser's side-game matchup allows the systems and methods described hereinto overcome several problems. For example, the rules-based approachprovides a system that is agile enough to cover multiple scoring systemsthat contain different rules. In fact, a media application may retrieveor be provided with rules stored by a service or defined by a user thatcan be used by the media application to identify scoring opportunitieswithout hard-coding the rules. Furthermore, the systems and methods canbe applied to a litany of events and sport by changing the rules thatdefine the scoring system of that event or sport. Additionally, themedia application, using a rules-based approach to identify scoringopportunities, solves yet another problem of keeping users from beingdistracted by other devices by providing individualized information toviewers that relates to their interest and augments the viewing of livesporting event.

In some embodiments, the media application generates for display, withthe video of the event, information about the possible scoring scenarioscomprises using the following techniques. The media application may mapcoordinates in the video of the event to the locations on the playingspace of the event that correspond to the possible scoring scenarios.For example, the media application may identify the location of the SanFrancisco 49ers' goal line in the video of the live sporting event(e.g., the xy-coordinates of the goal line).

In some embodiments, the media application may correlate coordinates ina three-dimensional model of the playing space of the event with thevideo of the event to determine coordinates in the video of the playingspace that correlate with locations of interest. In some embodiments,the media application may generate a graphical overlay for the mappedlocations on the playing space of the event to indicate thecorresponding possible scoring scenarios. For example, the mediaapplication may generate a red and gold line over the goal line and ared and gold halo around the user's running back on the playing surface.In some embodiments, the media application modifies the video of theevent to include the graphical overlay. For example, the mediaapplication may overlay the graphical information and textualinformation over the video of the event, e.g., sporting match.

In some embodiments, the media application may further determine whethera first scoring scenario in the possible scoring scenarios would changethe winner of the side-game matchup. For example, the user may have a3-point scoring opportunity and a 6-point scoring opportunity at thesame time the user may be within 4 points of fantasy scoring. Thus, the6-point scoring opportunity could change the winner of the fantasysports event. In response to determining that the first scoring scenariocould change who leads the side-game matchup, the media application mayemphasize the information about the first scoring scenario in comparisonto information about other possible scoring scenarios. For example, themedia application may generate information about the 6-point scoringopportunity in a different color, thicker text, or with special markingsto emphasize the fact that the 6-point scoring opportunity could changethe winner of the fantasy sports matchup.

In some embodiments, the media application may further determine a finalplayer from the roster maintained by the user for the side-game matchup.In other words, the media application may determine there are no otherplayers on the roster that can impact who leads the side-game. Forexample, the media application may determine that the user's runningback is the last active player from the user's fantasy sports roster andthat the user has no other players available from his active fantasysports roster that can score points in the user's fantasy sportsmatchup. In some embodiments, the media application tracks when thefinal player is active on the playing space of the event. For example,the media application may employ facial recognition or optical characterrecognition to identity a name or number on a player's jersey. Inanother example, the media application may receive a list of players onthe play surface of an event from a data service. In some embodiments,the media application may emphasize the final player in the video of theevent as compared with other participants of the event. For example, themedia application may include a special icon indicating the importanceof the athlete to the user's fantasy sports matchup.

In some embodiments, the media application may identify a second set ofpossible scoring scenarios for a second user participating in theside-game matchup. For example, the user may be watching the livesporting event with the user's opponent in the fantasy sports matchupand the media application may use techniques similar to those describedabove to identify scoring opportunities for the user's opponent.

In some embodiments, the media application may generate for display,with the video of the event, information about the second set ofpossible scoring scenarios including identification associating thesecond set of possible scoring scenarios with the second user. In someembodiments, the media application may generate information about thesecond set of possible scoring scenarios on a secondary display deviceused by the second user. For example, the user's opponent may haveaccess to a second display such a user tablet, mobile device, virtualreality goggles, or other personal display device.

In some embodiments, the media application may generate for display,with the video of the event, information about the possible scoringscenarios using the following techniques. The media application mayestablish communication with a secondary display device. For example,the media application may communicate with a user tablet, mobile device,virtual reality goggles, or other personal display device. In someembodiments, the media application may obtain, from the secondarydisplay device, a relative position of the secondary display device incomparison to a primary display device that is displaying the video ofthe event. For example, the media application may receive an indicationthat the secondary display device is to the left of the primary displaydevice. In some embodiments, the media application provides thesecondary display device with the information about the possible scoringscenarios for display on the secondary display device. In someembodiments, the media application uses the relative position of thesecondary display device to determine which information to generate fordisplay on the secondary display.

In some embodiments, the media application analyzes a first of thepossible scoring scenarios to determine a player participating in theevent whose performance could satisfy the first possible scoringscenario. For example, the media application may determine that arushing touchdown scoring scenario can be satisfied by “J. McKinnon,” arunning back on the San Francisco 49ers and also on the user's activefantasy roster. The media application may then retrieve statistics ofthe determined player relevant to the first possible scoring scenario.For example, the media application may determine that J. McKinnon onaverage rushes for 2.3 touchdowns per game and has already rushed for 2touchdowns and therefore there is a low probability that J. McKinnonwill rush for a third touchdown. In some embodiments, the mediaapplication may utilize additional statistics, such as the yards percarry for the career, yards per carry against the particular opponent,yards per carry in the game, etc., along with information about thecurrent situation of the game, such as the current line of scrimmage. Insome embodiments, the media application may generate for display, withthe information about the possible scoring scenarios, information aboutthe statistics of the determined player.

In some embodiments, the media application receives a selection of apossible scoring scenario from a user. For example, the mediaapplication may receive a gesture selection indicating the user selected“rushing touchdown” from a list of possible scoring scenarios. In someembodiments, the media application analyzes the selected possiblescoring scenarios to determine a player participating in the event whoseperformance could satisfy the first possible scoring scenario. Forexample, if the selected scoring scenario is a rushing touchdown, thenthe media application may determine that J. McKinnon from the SanFrancisco 49ers can satisfy the selected scenario. In some embodiments,the media application may emphasize, in the video of the event, thedetermined player.

In some embodiments, the media application may track a playing object inthe video of the event. For example, an image recognition system in themedia application may use the size, shape, or color of different playingobjects such as a football or other object. The media application maydetermine that the current circumstances of the event are changed basedon a current location of the playing object in comparison to a previouslocation of the playing object. For example, if the line of scrimmagewas originally determined to be at the San Francisco 49ers' 45-yard lineand the ball is tracked from the 45-yard line to the 30-yard line, thenthe media application may determine the circumstances of the event havechanged. In some embodiments, the media application may apply the set ofrules to data representing the changed circumstance of the event toidentify updated scoring scenarios in the side-game matchup and generatefor display, with the video of the event, information about the updatedscoring scenarios.

In some embodiments, the media application may track a player in theevent during an active portion of the event, e.g., during a footballplay. As the action progresses, the media application annotates thevideo of the event with information regarding the points the user isaccumulating during the action of the event, e.g., in realtime. Forexample, if the user has the 49ers' running back on his fantasy rosterand the running back is running the ball during a play, then the mediaapplication may annotate the display with a notation of the points theuser is gaining based on the distance the running back carries the ball.The media application may display the points in any increment ofaccumulation, e.g., in 0.1-point increments or 1-point increments. Thismay appear as a score total in the corner of a display or as anannotation in a cloud or box near the player of interest. In someembodiments, the media application may display the amount of pointsneeded for a user to win his fantasy sports matchup and subtract pointsfrom the needed amount as the user scores points in a given play. Insome embodiments, the user's total score is updated as the user scorespoints during action.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects and advantages of the disclosure will beapparent upon consideration of the following detailed description, takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like referencecharacters refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIG. 1 depicts an illustrative embodiment of a display of fantasy sportsscoring opportunities presented with video of a live sporting event inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 2 depicts an illustrative embodiment of a display of fantasy sportsscoring opportunities on a secondary display while video of a livesporting event is displayed on a primary display in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 3 depicts another illustrative embodiment of a display of fantasysports scoring opportunities presented with video of a live sportingevent in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 4 shows an illustrative embodiment of a display screen that may beused to provide media application listings and other media guidanceinformation, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 5 shows another illustrative embodiment of a display screen thatmay be used to provide media application listings, in accordance withsome embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an illustrative user equipment (UE) devicein accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of an illustrative media system in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 8 depicts an illustrative rules engine for identifying scoringopportunities in a fantasy sports matchup in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 9 depicts an illustrative set of data structures for defining ascoring system of a fantasy sports league in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 10 depicts an illustrative set of scoring scenarios for a fantasyfootball scoring system in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 11 depicts a set of data structures for defining a scoring rule fora running rule in a fantasy football scoring system in accordance withsome embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for generating a display ofinformation about fantasy sports scoring opportunities in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 13 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for mapping informationabout scoring opportunities onto video of a live sporting event inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 14 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for emphasizing a player ona user's fantasy sports roster in video of a live sporting event inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 15 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for providing a secondarydisplay device with information about scoring opportunities in a fantasysporting event in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 16 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for displaying informationabout statistics of a player on a user's fantasy sports roster relatedto a scoring opportunity that the player could satisfy in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 17 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for emphasizing a selectedplayer in a video of a live sporting event in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure; and;

FIG. 18 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for updating the scoringopportunities based on changed circumstances in a live sporting event inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 depicts an illustrative embodiment of a display of fantasy sportsscoring opportunities presented with video of a live sporting event inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. In FIG. 1, a userequipment 100 (i.e., a television) implements a media application usingcontrol circuitry. The functionality of user equipment, controlcircuitry, and the media application is described in further detail withrespect to FIGS. 4-7.

In FIG. 1, the media application is generating video 105 of a livesporting event. For example, video 105 may be of a National FootballLeague (“NFL”) game between the San Francisco 49ers (“49ers”) and theSan Diego Chargers. Along with the video 105 of the live sporting event,the media application may generate an informational display 120 thatincludes information about a fantasy sports contest in which a user(i.e., a viewer of the live sporting event) is participating.

For demonstrative purposes, the example of FIG. 1 depicts a footballgame between plays. The football (i.e., the playing object) is locatedon the 49ers' 18-yard line and the 49ers are depicted as havingpossession of the football (i.e., on offense). While the descriptionsbelow are made using the example of a live sporting event and a fantasysports event, a person of skill in the art would apply the techniquesequally to other events and other side-games.

The media application may retrieve data relating to a current status, ata current time, of a side-game in which a user is participating, theside-game being based on the sporting event. For example, the mediaapplication may retrieve information about a fantasy sports matchup inwhich the user is participating, such as a weekly fantasy football matchagainst another individual. In some embodiments, the media applicationmay access information from a remote server by way of an applicationprogramming interface to retrieve information about live sporting eventsand the user's side-game. In some embodiments, the information aboutlive sporting events and the user's side-game may be transmitted withthe sports programming (e.g., from media content source 716 (FIG. 7)) asmetadata for the media application. In some embodiments, as describedherein, the media application may analyze video of live sporting eventsto determine information about the circumstances of the live sportingevents such as the identities of players on the field, the location ofthe playing object, the team with possession of the playing object, etc.

The media application may also determine, at the current time, that anext play of the sporting event could affect an outcome of theside-game. For example, the media application may determine that theuser is within 4 points of winning the fantasy sports matchup. Inresponse to determining that the next play could affect the outcome ofthe side-game, the media application may determine a particular actionwithin the sporting event that could affect the outcome of theside-game. In some embodiments, the media application may generate fordisplay, within the live video 105, an overlay on top of a playing spaceof the sporting event, the overlay indicating where the particularaction would need to occur to affect the outcome of the side-game. Forexample, the media application may display a highlight 129 on the user'srunning back 128 (e.g., a halo around the running back in red and gold)along with a marker 130 at the end-zone (e.g., a red and gold line onthe goal line) and a textual annotation 135 of the possible fantasysports implications.

In some embodiments, the media application may present a list of scoringopportunities 125 to the user. For example, if the user has a fantasysports roster consisting of different players from different teams, thenthe user may have scoring opportunities in the live sporting event basedon having one or more players from the San Francisco 49ers or the SanDiego Chargers. In the example of FIG. 1, the identified scoringopportunities are listed as a 35-yard field goal, a 10-yard run, and an18-yard touchdown run which yield 3 points, 1 point, and 7 pointsrespectively for the user in his fantasy sports matchup. In someembodiments, the media application determines the scoring opportunitiesbased on the circumstances of the live sporting event (e.g., the 49ersbeing in possession of the football at the 18-yard line) and the user'sfantasy sports roster, which in this example includes at least the49ers' placekicker and running back.

In some embodiments, the media application may be in communication witha service that maintains information about the user's fantasy sportsleague. For example, the media application may be in communication witha server maintained by a service such as DraftKings, Yahoo!, ESPN, orFan Duel. The media application may access the information using aservice API, remote procedure call, or by, for example, scraping data.The media application may obtain a username, password, or other logincredentials unique to the user to allow the media application toretrieve information particularized to the user. In some embodiments,the media application may obtain a username or team name that allows themedia application to identify the user's roster information from among aleague of users. In some embodiments, the information also contains theperformance of the user's fantasy team during a given period of time,e.g., during a week, and/or includes information about the real lifesporting events that indicates the points in the fantasy sports league.

In some embodiments, the media application may retrieve, from a memory,current status data of a fantasy sports event in which a user isparticipating. For example, the user may be in a fantasy footballleague, and the media application may retrieve the current status of theuser's weekly matchup (e.g., the user's active roster, the user'sopponent's active roster, the current score for each user in thematchupfantasy matchup, etc.). In some embodiments, the mediaapplication may identify players participating in the live sportingevent that are from a roster maintained by the user for the fantasysports event. For example, the media application may identify playersfrom the user's fantasy team roster that play on either the SanFrancisco 49ers or the San Diego Chargers and that are active on theuser's roster.

In some embodiments, the media application may obtain a set of rulesthat define scoring opportunities in the fantasy sports event for theuser as a function of possible actions and players in the sportingevent. For example, the media application may determine that the userhas an active running back on his fantasy football roster that plays forthe San Francisco 49ers, and the media application may retrieve a rulethat indicates that the user has a scoring opportunity if the user'srunning back rushes for a touchdown (e.g., the user may receive 6 pointstoward the user's fantasy score for the week if the user's running backrushes for a touchdown).

In some embodiments, the media application may obtain data representingcurrent circumstances of the live sporting event. For example, the mediaapplication may obtain information specifying the team with currentpossession of the football, the current line of scrimmage, the currentplayers on the field of play, the amount of time remaining in the livesporting event, the score of the professional teams in the live sportingevent, etc.

In some embodiments, the media application may apply the set of rules tothe data representing the current circumstances of the live sportingevent to identify possible scoring scenarios in the fantasy sports eventand locations on a playing space of the live sporting event thatcorrespond to the possible scoring scenarios. For example, if the user'sactive running back is currently on the field of play and the line ofscrimmage is on the San Francisco 49ers' 6-yard line, then the set ofrules may indicate that the user has a 6-point scoring opportunity. Insome embodiments, the media application may further determine that,based on the score of the fantasy sports matchup, a 6-point scoringopportunity may give the user the lead in the current fantasy sportsmatchup.

In some embodiments, the media application may generate for display,with the video of the live sporting event, information about thepossible scoring scenarios (e.g., a list of scoring opportunities 125).In some embodiments, the media application may include identification ofthe locations on the playing space of the live sporting event thatcorrespond to the possible scoring scenarios. For example, the mediaapplication may present a textual list of possible scoring opportunities(e.g., rushing touchdown scores 6 points), including informationindicating the scoring opportunity occurs at the San Francisco 49ers'goal line.

In some embodiments, the media application may generate for display,within the live video, an overlay on top of a playing space of thesporting event, the overlay indicating where the particular action wouldneed to occur to affect the outcome of the side-game. For example, themedia application may display a highlight on the user's running back(e.g., a halo around the running back in red and gold), along with amarker at the end-zone (e.g., a red and gold line on the goal line),along with textual annotation of the possible fantasy sportsimplications.

In some embodiments, the media application may emphasize a scoringopportunity from the list of scoring opportunities 125 as beingparticularly impactful on the user's fantasy sports matchup. Forexample, if the user is down by 4 points in his fantasy matchup, then ascoring opportunity worth more than 4 points would swing outcome of theuser's matchup from a loss for the user to a win for the user. FIG. 1further depicts such a scenario with an optional emphasis of the 18-yardrushing touchdown scoring opportunity with a highlighting box 126 andemphasis icon 127 (e.g., an exclamation mark accompanying theidentification of the scoring opportunity). In some embodiments, themedia application may employ one of the emphasizing markers withoutdisplaying the other. Still other types of emphasis may be used by themedia application to denote particular scoring opportunities, e.g.,underline, specific colors, bolded text, highlighting, other icons,flashing text, etc.

In some embodiments, the media application may identify players from auser's fantasy sports roster that are on the field of play. For example,methods and systems for visually distinguishing players in video of asporting event are described in greater detail in Jensen et al. U.S.Pat. No. 9,409,081, issued Aug. 9, 2016, which is hereby incorporated byreference herein in its entirety. In video 105, the 49ers' running back128 (“J. McKinnon,” jersey number 28) is depicted with a halo 129. Asnoted above, the media application has identified two scoringopportunities for the user based on the user having the 49ers' runningback 128 on his fantasy sports roster.

In some embodiments, the media application may further identify scoringopportunities based on the identification of players on the activeplaying surface of a sporting event. In such a case, the mediaapplication may identify the 10-yard run and 18-yard touchdown run asscoring opportunities based on the 49ers' running back 128 being on theactive field as the running back is associated with those opportunities,and at the same time the media application may not identify the 35-yardfield goal as a scoring opportunity because the user's player associatedwith that opportunity, the 49ers' placekicker, is not currently on thefield of play.

In some embodiments, the media application may also present guidanceopportunities to the user. For example, the media application maypresent other views of the live sporting event or other sporting eventsof interest. This is shown in FIG. 1 where the media application isshowing an alternative view of the 49ers' football game as a navigationoption 140. In FIG. 1, the media application is also showing other NFLfootball games as navigation options 145 and 150. For example, the mediaapplication may analyze the user's fantasy roster to determine whichplayers on the user's fantasy roster are on teams with an activefootball game and present those games as viewing options. In someembodiments, the media application may determine that certain players onthe user's fantasy roster have scoring opportunities with moresignificant impact on the user's fantasy matchup (i.e., higher pointpotential) and emphasize the navigation option for the correspondingmatchup with, for example, highlighting or textual emphasis.

In some embodiments, the media application may automatically switch thedisplay of the video 105 of the live sporting event to a second livesporting event (e.g., the game depicted in option 145) based on thepotential impact of the sporting events on the user's fantasy sportsmatchup. For example, the media application may determine the user has ascoring opportunity worth 9 points in a matchup between the Kansas CityChiefs and New England Patriots (depicted as option 145 in FIG. 1) basedon the user's fantasy roster and the circumstances of the game betweenthe Chiefs and the Patriots. In response to determining the Chiefsversus Patriots game is potentially more impactful to the user's fantasymatchup, the media application may automatically switch video of theChiefs' game into a primary position and place video 105 of the 49ers'game into a secondary position.

In some embodiments, the media application may identify the list ofscoring opportunities 125 based on more than one sporting event based onthe user's roster of players and the circumstances of multiple sportingevents. The media application may, for example, allow the user to selectdifferent scoring opportunities from the list of scoring opportunities125. Upon selection, the media application may determine the playerassociated with the scoring opportunity and also the sporting eventassociated with the scoring opportunity. Using that information, themedia application may generate for display video of the identifiedplayer or the identified sporting event if such a video is available fordisplay. For example, if the user has a scoring opportunity in theChiefs' game, depicted as navigation option 145, and the user selectsthat scoring opportunity from list 125 (e.g., using a remote control,touch input, voice control, or other input) then the media applicationmay place video of the Chiefs' game in place of the video 105 of the49ers' game. Therefore, the techniques described herein provide uniqueopportunities to allow a user to keep track of the events in a livesporting event, or multiple live sporting events, that impact the user'sfantasy sports matchups.

In some embodiments, the media application may further determine a finalplayer from the roster maintained by the user for the fantasy sportsevent. In other words, there are no other players on the roster that canimpact who leads the fantasy sports event. For example, the mediaapplication may determine that the user's running back is the lastactive player from the user's fantasy sports roster and that the userhas no other players available from his active fantasy sports rosterthat can score points in the user's fantasy sports matchup. In someembodiments, the media application tracks when the final player isactive on the playing space of the live sporting event. For example, themedia application may employ facial recognition or optical characterrecognition to identity a name or number on a player's jersey. Inanother example, the media application may receive a list of players onthe play surface of a sporting event from a data service. In someembodiments, the media application may emphasize the final player in thevideo of the live sporting event as compared with other participants ofthe live sporting event. For example, the media application may includea special icon indicating the importance of the athlete to the user'sfantasy sports matchup. For example, the media application may determinethat the 49ers' running back 128 is the last active player from theuser's fantasy sports lineup and may emphasize that player in accordancewith the techniques described above.

In some embodiments, the media application analyzes a first of thepossible scoring scenarios to determine a player participating in thelive sporting event whose performance could satisfy the first possiblescoring scenario. For example, the media application may determine thata rushing touchdown scoring scenario can be satisfied by “J. McKinnon,”a running back on the San Francisco 49ers and also on the user's activefantasy roster. The media application may then retrieve statistics ofthe determined player relevant to the first possible scoring scenario.For example, the media application may determine that J. McKinnon onaverage rushes for 2.3 touchdowns per game and has already rushed for 2touchdowns and therefore there is a low probability that J. McKinnonwill rush for a third touchdown. In some embodiments, the mediaapplication may utilize additional statistics such as the yards percarry for the career, yards per carry against the particular opponent,yards per carry in the game, etc., along with information about thecurrent situation of the game such as the current line of scrimmage. Insome embodiments, the media application may generate for display, withthe information about the possible scoring scenarios, information aboutthe statistics of the determined player.

In some embodiments, the media application receives a selection of apossible scoring scenario from a user. For example, the mediaapplication may receive a gesture selection indicating the user selectedrushing touchdown from a list of possible scoring scenarios 125. In someembodiments, the media application analyzes the selected possiblescoring scenarios to determine a player participating in the livesporting event whose performance could satisfy the first possiblescoring scenario. For example, if the selected scoring scenario is arushing touchdown, then the media application may determine that J.McKinnon from the San Francisco 49ers can satisfy the selected scenario.The media application may emphasize, in the video 105 of the livesporting event, the determined player using, for example, halo 129.

In some embodiments, the media application receives video of livesporting events to be displayed on a user device (also known as userequipment) and processes video of the live sporting events using anobject recognition module to determine characteristics of the event(e.g., the identities of players on the field of play, the location ofan object of play, etc.). As used herein, an “object recognition module”is any device or application that may be associated with, incorporatedinto, or accessed by the media application or the user equipment uponwhich the media application is implemented and tasked with finding agiven object and/or determining characteristics about the object in animage or video.

The object recognition module may use edge detection, patternrecognition, including, but not limited to, self-learning systems (e.g.,neural networks), optical character recognition, on-line characterrecognition (including but not limited to, dynamic characterrecognition, real-time character recognition, intelligent characterrecognition), and/or any other suitable technique or method to determinethe objects and/or characteristics in media assets. For example, themedia application may receive sports programming in the form of a video.The video may include a series of frames. For each frame of the video,the media application may use an object recognition module to determinethe characteristics associated with each player currently appearing inthe sports programming.

In addition, the media application may use multiple types of opticalcharacter recognition and/or fuzzy logic, for example, when comparingmultiple data fields (e.g., as contained in data structures describedbelow). For example, the particular data field may be a textual datafield. Using fuzzy logic, the system may determine two fields and/orvalues to be identical even though the substance of the data field orvalue (e.g., two different spellings) is not identical. In someembodiments, the system may analyze particular data fields of a datastructure or media asset frame for particular values or text. The datafields could be associated with characteristics, additional information,and/or any other data required for the function of the embodimentsdescribed herein. Furthermore, the data fields could contain values(e.g., the data fields could be expressed in binary or any othersuitable code or programming language).

As used herein, a “characteristic” of a player refers to any marking,tag, or other signal used to identify a player, including the positionof the player, to people or media systems. For example, characteristicsof a player may be physical markings that appear on an actual player asthe player participates in a televised sporting event (e.g., a jerseynumber, team name, a name appearing on the uniform, etc.). In someembodiments, the characteristics may also include tags transmitted withthe sports programming (e.g., from media content source 716 (FIG. 7)) asmetadata, which indicates to the media application particular traitsand/or attributes (including, but not limited to, the name of a playerand/or the position of the player on currently displayed sportsprogramming). In some embodiments, the characteristics of playerscurrently appearing in sports programming may be transmitted in the formof media data. For example, the characteristics determined by an objectrecognition module incorporated into a media application may betransmitted to a remote server for processing. Additionally oralternatively, media data describing the characteristics may betransmitted from a remote server to a media application.

As used herein, “visually distinguishing” a player may include anyindication in the media asset that alerts a user to the presence of theplayer in the sports programming. In some embodiments, visuallydistinguishing a player may include highlighting, boxing, bolding,enlarging, changing the color, or otherwise graphically altering theplayer as displayed in the sports programming. In addition, multimediaindications may also be used. For example, the media application may useaudio tones and/or audio descriptions (e.g., a verbal announcement) toindicate the presence of the player in the sports programming. In someembodiments, the media application may additionally or alternativelyvisually distinguish players based on user inputs (e.g., instructions tovisually distinguish or not visually distinguish the players currentlyappearing or players that will appear in the sports programming).

FIG. 2 depicts an illustrative embodiment of a display of fantasy sportsscoring opportunities on a secondary display 220 while video 205 of alive sporting event is displayed on a primary display 200 in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure. Continuing with the exampledescribed with reference to FIG. 1, FIG. 2 depicts the video 205 of thelive sporting event between the 49ers and the Chargers as beingdisplayed on user equipment 200. In FIG. 2, the display of the video 205is generated on user equipment 200 without fantasy sports information.In some embodiments, user equipment 200 communicates with user equipment210 (e.g., a set-top box). In FIG. 2, a secondary display 220 (e.g.,augmented reality or virtual reality goggles) also communicates withuser equipment 210. In FIG. 2, the secondary display 220 presents theuser with fantasy sports information such as the fantasy sportsinformation which corresponds with the fantasy sports information 120from FIG. 2.

In some embodiments, the media application may identify a second set ofpossible scoring scenarios for a second user participating in thefantasy sports event. For example, the user may be watching the livesporting event with the user's opponent in the fantasy sports matchup,and the media application may use techniques similar to those describedabove to identify scoring opportunities for the user's opponent.

In some embodiments, the media application may generate for display,with the video 205 of the live sporting event, information about thesecond set of possible scoring scenarios including identificationassociating the second set of possible scoring scenarios with the seconduser. In some embodiments, the media application may generateinformation about the second set of possible scoring scenarios on asecondary display device 220 used by the second user. For example, theuser's opponent may have access to a second display such a user tablet,mobile device, virtual reality goggles, or other personal displaydevice.

In some embodiments, the media application may generate for display,with the video 205 of the live sporting event, information about thepossible scoring scenarios using the following techniques. The mediaapplication may establish communication with a secondary display device220. For example, the media application may communicate with a usertablet, mobile device, virtual reality goggles, or other personaldisplay device. In some embodiments, the media application may obtain,from the secondary display device 220, a relative position of thesecondary display device 220 in comparison to a primary display device200 displaying the video 205 of the live sporting event. For example,the media application may receive an indication that the secondarydisplay device 220 is to the left of the primary display device 200. Insome embodiments, the media application provides the secondary displaydevice 220 with the information about the possible scoring scenarios fordisplay on the secondary display device 220. In some embodiments, themedia application uses the relative position of the secondary displaydevice 220 to determine which information to generate for display on thesecondary display device 220.

FIG. 3 depicts another illustrative embodiment of a display of fantasysports scoring opportunities presented with video of a live sportingevent in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. Continuingwith the example from FIG. 1, FIG. 3 depicts a video 205 of a livesporting event (e.g., an NFL football game between the 49ers and theChargers). A media application may map coordinates in the video 305 ofthe live sporting event to the locations on the playing space of thelive sporting event that correspond to the possible scoring scenarios.For example, the media application may identify the location of the SanFrancisco 49ers' goal line in the video 305 of the live sporting event(e.g., the xy-coordinates of the goal line). In some embodiments, themedia application may determine a graphical overlay 315 for the mappedlocations on the playing space of the live sporting event to indicatethe corresponding possible scoring scenarios. For example, the mediaapplication may generate a red and gold line 315 over the goal line anda red and gold halo 329 around the user's running back on the playingsurface. In some embodiments, the media application modifies the videoof the live sporting event to include the graphical overlay. Forexample, the media application may overlay the graphical information andtextual information 310 over the video of the sporting match. Thus, themedia application may track active players from the user's fantasysports roster in the video 305 and annotate the video 305 withinformation about scoring opportunities in the user's fantasy sportsmatchup that could be satisfied by actions of the identified players. InFIG. 3., for example, fantasy information overlay 310 indicates twoscoring opportunities associated with the running back, a 10-yard runfor 1 point and a 18-yard touchdown run for 7 points.

In some embodiments, the media application may track a playing object inthe video 305 of the live sporting event. For example, an imagerecognition system in the media application may use the size, shape, orcolor of different playing objects such as a football or other object.The media application may determine that the current circumstances ofthe live sporting event are changed based on a current location of theplaying object in comparison to a previous location of the playingobject. For example, if the line of scrimmage was originally determinedto be at the San Francisco 49ers' 45-yard line and the ball is trackedfrom the 45-yard line to the 30-yard line, then the media applicationmay determine the circumstances of the live sporting event have changed.In some embodiments, the media application may apply the set of rules todata representing the changed circumstance of the live sporting event toidentify updated scoring scenarios in the fantasy sports event andgenerate for display, with the video of the live sporting event,information about the updated scoring scenarios.

Media applications may take various forms depending on the content forwhich they provide guidance. One typical type of media application is aninteractive television program guide. Interactive television programguides (sometimes referred to as electronic program guides) arewell-known guidance applications that, among other things, allow usersto navigate among and locate many types of content or media assets.Interactive media applications may generate graphical user interfacescreens that enable a user to navigate among, locate and select content.As referred to herein, the terms “media asset” and “content” should beunderstood to mean an electronically consumable user asset, such astelevision programming, as well as pay-per-view programs, on-demandprograms (as in video-on-demand (VOD) systems), Internet content (e.g.,streaming content, downloadable content, Webcasts, etc.), video clips,audio, content information, pictures, rotating images, documents,playlists, websites, articles, books, electronic books, blogs, chatsessions, social media, applications, games, and/or any other media ormultimedia and/or combination of the same. Guidance applications alsoallow users to navigate among and locate content. As referred to herein,the term “multimedia” should be understood to mean content that utilizesat least two different content forms described above, for example, text,audio, images, video, or interactivity content forms. Content may berecorded, played, displayed or accessed by user equipment devices, butcan also be part of a live performance.

The media application and/or any instructions for performing any of theembodiments discussed herein may be encoded on computer readable media.Computer readable media includes any media capable of storing data. Thecomputer readable media may be transitory, including, but not limitedto, propagating electrical or electromagnetic signals, or may benon-transitory including, but not limited to, volatile and non-volatilecomputer memory or storage devices such as a hard disk, floppy disk, USBdrive, DVD, CD, media cards, register memory, processor caches, RandomAccess Memory (“RAM”), etc.

With the advent of the Internet, mobile computing, and high-speedwireless networks, users are accessing media on user equipment deviceson which they traditionally did not. As referred to herein, the phrase“user equipment device,” “user equipment,” “user device,” “electronicdevice,” “electronic equipment,” “media equipment device,” or “mediadevice” should be understood to mean any device for accessing thecontent described above, such as a television, a Smart TV, a set-topbox, an integrated receiver decoder (IRD) for handling satellitetelevision, a digital storage device, a digital media receiver (DMR), adigital media adapter (DMA), a streaming media device, a DVD player, aDVD recorder, a connected DVD, a local media server, a BLU-RAY player, aBLU-RAY recorder, a personal computer (PC), a laptop computer, a tabletcomputer, a WebTV box, a personal computer television (PC/TV), a PCmedia server, a PC media center, a hand-held computer, a stationarytelephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, aportable video player, a portable music player, a portable gamingmachine, a smart phone, or any other television equipment, computingequipment, or wireless device, and/or combination of the same. In someembodiments, the user equipment device may have a front facing screenand a rear facing screen, multiple front screens, or multiple angledscreens. In some embodiments, the user equipment device may have a frontfacing camera and/or a rear facing camera. On these user equipmentdevices, users may be able to navigate among and locate the same contentavailable through a television. Consequently, media guidance and mediaapplications may be available on these devices, as well. The guidanceprovided may be for content available only through a television, forcontent available only through one or more of other types of userequipment devices, or for content available both through a televisionand one or more of the other types of user equipment devices. The mediaapplications may be provided as on-line applications (i.e., provided ona web-site), or as stand-alone applications or clients on user equipmentdevices. Various devices and platforms that may implement mediaapplications are described in more detail below.

One of the functions of the media application is to provide mediaguidance data to users. As referred to herein, the phrase “mediaguidance data” or “guidance data” should be understood to mean any datarelated to content or data used in operating the guidance application.For example, the guidance data may include program information, guidanceapplication settings, user preferences, user profile information, medialistings, media-related information (e.g., broadcast times, broadcastchannels, titles, descriptions, ratings information (e.g., parentalcontrol ratings, critic's ratings, etc.), genre or category information,actor information, logo data for broadcasters' or providers' logos,etc.), media format (e.g., standard definition, high definition, 3D,etc.), on-demand information, blogs, websites, and any other type ofguidance data that is helpful for a user to navigate among and locatedesired content selections.

FIGS. 4-5 show illustrative display screens that may be used to providemedia guidance data. The display screens shown in FIGS. 4-5 may beimplemented on any suitable user equipment device or platform. While thedisplays of FIGS. 4-5 are illustrated as full screen displays, they mayalso be fully or partially overlaid over content being displayed. A usermay indicate a desire to access content information by selecting aselectable option provided in a display screen (e.g., a menu option, alistings option, an icon, a hyperlink, etc.) or pressing a dedicatedbutton (e.g., a GUIDE button) on a remote control or other user inputinterface or device. In response to the user's indication, the mediaapplication may provide a display screen with media guidance dataorganized in one of several ways, such as by time and channel in a grid,by time, by channel, by source, by content type, by category (e.g.,movies, sports, news, children, or other categories of programming), orother predefined, user-defined, or other organization criteria.

FIG. 4 shows illustrative grid of a program listings display 400arranged by time and channel that also enables access to different typesof content in a single display. Display 400 may include grid 402 with:(1) a column of channel/content type identifiers 404, where eachchannel/content type identifier (which is a cell in the column)identifies a different channel or content type available; and (2) a rowof time identifiers 406, where each time identifier (which is a cell inthe row) identifies a time block of programming. Grid 402 also includescells of program listings, such as program listing 408, where eachlisting provides the title of the program provided on the listing'sassociated channel and time. With a user input device, a user can selectprogram listings by moving highlight region 410. Information relating tothe program listing selected by highlight region 410 may be provided inprogram information region 412. Region 412 may include, for example, theprogram title, the program description, the time the program is provided(if applicable), the channel the program is on (if applicable), theprogram's rating, and other desired information.

In addition to providing access to linear programming (e.g., contentthat is scheduled to be transmitted to a plurality of user equipmentdevices at a predetermined time and is provided according to aschedule), the media application also provides access to non-linearprogramming (e.g., content accessible to a user equipment device at anytime and is not provided according to a schedule). Non-linearprogramming may include content from different content sources includingon-demand content (e.g., VOD), Internet content (e.g., streaming media,downloadable media, etc.), locally stored content (e.g., content storedon any user equipment device described above or other storage device),or other time-independent content. On-demand content may include moviesor any other content provided by a particular content provider (e.g.,HBO On Demand providing “The Sopranos” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm”). HBOON DEMAND is a service mark owned by Time Warner Company L.P. et al. andTHE SOPRANOS and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM are trademarks owned by the HomeBox Office, Inc. Internet content may include web events, such as a chatsession or Webcast, or content available on-demand as streaming contentor downloadable content through an Internet web site or other Internetaccess (e.g., FTP).

Grid 402 may provide media guidance data for non-linear programmingincluding on-demand listing 414, recorded content listing 416, andInternet content listing 418. A display combining media guidance datafor content from different types of content sources is sometimesreferred to as a “mixed-media” display. Various permutations of thetypes of media guidance data that may be displayed that are differentthan display 400 may be based on user selection or guidance applicationdefinition (e.g., a display of only recorded and broadcast listings,only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.). As illustrated, listings414, 416, and 418 are shown as spanning the entire time block displayedin grid 402 to indicate that selection of these listings may provideaccess to a display dedicated to on-demand listings, recorded listings,or Internet listings, respectively. In some embodiments, listings forthese content types may be included directly in grid 402. Additionalmedia guidance data may be displayed in response to the user selectingone of the navigational icons 420. (Pressing an arrow key on a userinput device may affect the display in a similar manner as selectingnavigational icons 420.)

Display 400 may also include video region 422, and options region 426.Video region 422 may allow the user to view and/or preview programs thatare currently available, will be available, or were available to theuser. The content of video region 422 may correspond to, or beindependent from, one of the listings displayed in grid 402. Griddisplays including a video region are sometimes referred to aspicture-in-guide (PIG) displays. PIG displays and their functionalitiesare described in greater detail in Satterfield et al. U.S. Pat. No.6,564,378, issued May 13, 2003 and Yuen et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,239,794,issued May 29, 2001, which are hereby incorporated by reference hereinin their entireties. PIG displays may be included in other mediaapplication display screens of the embodiments described herein.

Options region 426 may allow the user to access different types ofcontent, media application displays, and/or media application features.Options region 426 may be part of display 400 (and other display screensdescribed herein), or may be invoked by a user by selecting an on-screenoption or pressing a dedicated or assignable button on a user inputdevice. The selectable options within options region 426 may concernfeatures related to program listings in grid 402 or may include optionsavailable from a main menu display. Features related to program listingsmay include searching for other air times or ways of receiving aprogram, recording a program, enabling series recording of a program,setting program and/or channel as a favorite, purchasing a program, orother features. Options available from a main menu display may includesearch options, VOD options, parental control options, Internet options,cloud-based options, device synchronization options, second screendevice options, options to access various types of media guidance datadisplays, options to subscribe to a premium service, options to edit auser's profile, options to access a browse overlay, or other options.

The media application may be personalized based on a user's preferences.A personalized media application allows a user to customize displays andfeatures to create a personalized “experience” with the mediaapplication. This personalized experience may be created by allowing auser to input these customizations and/or by the media applicationmonitoring user activity to determine various user preferences. Usersmay access their personalized guidance application by logging in orotherwise identifying themselves to the guidance application.Customization of the media application may be made in accordance with auser profile. The customizations may include varying presentationschemes (e.g., color scheme of displays, font size of text, etc.),aspects of content listings displayed (e.g., only HDTV or only 3Dprogramming, user-specified broadcast channels based on favorite channelselections, re-ordering the display of channels, recommended content,etc.), desired recording features (e.g., recording or series recordingsfor particular users, recording quality, etc.), parental controlsettings, customized presentation of Internet content (e.g.,presentation of social media content, e-mail, electronically deliveredarticles, etc.) and other desired customizations.

The media application may allow a user to provide user profileinformation or may automatically compile user profile information. Themedia application may, for example, monitor the content the useraccesses and/or other interactions the user may have with the guidanceapplication. Additionally, the media application may obtain all or partof other user profiles that are related to a particular user (e.g., fromother web sites on the Internet the user accesses, such as www.Tivo.com,from other media applications the user accesses, from other interactiveapplications the user accesses, from another user equipment device ofthe user, etc.), and/or obtain information about the user from othersources that the media application may access. As a result, a user canbe provided with a unified guidance application experience across theuser's different user equipment devices. This type of user experience isdescribed in greater detail below in connection with FIG. 7. Additionalpersonalized media application features are described in greater detailin Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2005/0251827,filed Jul. 11, 2005, Boyer et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,165,098, issued Jan.16, 2007, and Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No.2002/0174430, filed Feb. 21, 2002, which are hereby incorporated byreference herein in their entireties.

Another display arrangement for providing media guidance is shown inFIG. 5. Video mosaic display 500 includes selectable options 502 forcontent information organized based on content type, genre, and/or otherorganization criteria. In display 500, television listings option 504 isselected, thus providing listings 506, 508, 510, and 512 as broadcastprogram listings. In display 500 the listings may provide graphicalimages including cover art, still images from the content, video clippreviews, live video from the content, or other types of content thatindicate to a user the content being described by the media guidancedata in the listing. Each of the graphical listings may also beaccompanied by text to provide further information about the contentassociated with the listing. For example, listing 508 may include morethan one portion, including media portion 514 and text portion 516.Media portion 514 and/or text portion 516 may be selectable to viewcontent in full-screen or to view information related to the contentdisplayed in media portion 514 (e.g., to view listings for the channelthat the video is displayed on).

The listings in display 500 are of different sizes (i.e., listing 506 islarger than listings 508, 510, and 512), but if desired, all thelistings may be the same size. Listings may be of different sizes orgraphically accentuated to indicate degrees of interest to the user orto emphasize certain content, as desired by the content provider orbased on user preferences. Various systems and methods for graphicallyaccentuating content listings are discussed in, for example, Yates, U.S.Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0153885, filed Nov. 12, 2009,which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Users may access content and the media application (and its displayscreens described above and below) from one or more of their userequipment devices. FIG. 6 shows a generalized embodiment of illustrativeuser equipment device 600. More specific implementations of userequipment devices are discussed below in connection with FIG. 7. Userequipment device 600 may receive content and data via input/output(hereinafter “I/O”) path 602. I/O path 602 may provide content (e.g.,broadcast programming, on-demand programming, Internet content, contentavailable over a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN),and/or other content) and data to control circuitry 604, which includesprocessing circuitry 606 and storage 608. Control circuitry 604 may beused to send and receive commands, requests, and other suitable datausing I/O path 602. I/O path 602 may connect control circuitry 604 (andspecifically processing circuitry 606) to one or more communicationspaths (described below). I/O functions may be provided by one or more ofthese communications paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG. 6 toavoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Control circuitry 604 may be based on any suitable processing circuitrysuch as processing circuitry 606. As referred to herein, processingcircuitry should be understood to mean circuitry based on one or moremicroprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors,programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs),application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may includea multi-core processor (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or anysuitable number of cores) or supercomputer. In some embodiments,processing circuitry may be distributed across multiple separateprocessors or processing units, for example, multiple of the same typeof processing units (e.g., two Intel Core i7 processors) or multipledifferent processors (e.g., an Intel Core i5 processor and an Intel Corei7 processor). In some embodiments, control circuitry 604 executesinstructions for a media application stored in memory (i.e., storage608). Specifically, control circuitry 604 may be instructed by the mediaapplication to perform the functions discussed above and below. Forexample, the media application may provide instructions to controlcircuitry 604 to generate the media guidance displays. In someimplementations, any action performed by control circuitry 604 may bebased on instructions received from the media application.

In client-server based embodiments, control circuitry 604 may includecommunications circuitry suitable for communicating with a guidanceapplication server or other networks or servers. The instructions forcarrying out the above mentioned functionality may be stored on theguidance application server. Communications circuitry may include acable modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) modem, adigital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a telephone modem, Ethernet card,or a wireless modem for communications with other equipment, or anyother suitable communications circuitry. Such communications may involvethe Internet or any other suitable communications networks or paths(which is described in more detail in connection with FIG. 7). Inaddition, communications circuitry may include circuitry that enablespeer-to-peer communication of user equipment devices, or communicationof user equipment devices in locations remote from each other (describedin more detail below).

Memory may be an electronic storage device provided as storage 608 thatis part of control circuitry 604. As referred to herein, the phrase“electronic storage device” or “storage device” should be understood tomean any device for storing electronic data, computer software, orfirmware, such as random-access memory, read-only memory, hard drives,optical drives, digital video disc (DVD) recorders, compact disc (CD)recorders, BLU-RAY disc (BD) recorders, BLU-RAY 3D disc recorders,digital video recorders (DVR, sometimes called a personal videorecorder, or PVR), solid state devices, quantum storage devices, gamingconsoles, gaming media, or any other suitable fixed or removable storagedevices, and/or any combination of the same. Storage 608 may be used tostore various types of content described herein as well as mediaguidance data described above. Nonvolatile memory may also be used(e.g., to launch a boot-up routine and other instructions). Cloud-basedstorage, described in relation to FIG. 7, may be used to supplementstorage 608 or instead of storage 608.

Control circuitry 604 may include video generating circuitry and tuningcircuitry, such as one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG-2decoders or other digital decoding circuitry, high-definition tuners, orany other suitable tuning or video circuits or combinations of suchcircuits. Encoding circuitry (e.g., for converting over-the-air, analog,or digital signals to MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided.Control circuitry 604 may also include scaler circuitry for upconvertingand downconverting content into the preferred output format of the userequipment 600. Circuitry 604 may also include digital-to-analogconverter circuitry and analog-to-digital converter circuitry forconverting between digital and analog signals. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may be used by the user equipment device to receive and todisplay, to play, or to record content. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may also be used to receive guidance data. The circuitrydescribed herein, including for example, the tuning, video generating,encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaler, and analog/digitalcircuitry, may be implemented using software running on one or moregeneral purpose or specialized processors. Multiple tuners may beprovided to handle simultaneous tuning functions (e.g., watch and recordfunctions, picture-in-picture (PIP) functions, multiple-tuner recording,etc.). If storage 608 is provided as a separate device from userequipment 600, the tuning and encoding circuitry (including multipletuners) may be associated with storage 608.

A user may send instructions to control circuitry 604 using user inputinterface 610. User input interface 610 may be any suitable userinterface, such as a remote control, mouse, trackball, keypad, keyboard,touch screen, touchpad, stylus input, joystick, voice recognitioninterface, or other user input interfaces. Display 612 may be providedas a stand-alone device or integrated with other elements of userequipment device 600. For example, display 612 may be a touchscreen ortouch-sensitive display. In such circumstances, user input interface 610may be integrated with or combined with display 612. Display 612 may beone or more of a monitor, a television, a liquid crystal display (LCD)for a mobile device, amorphous silicon display, low temperature polysilicon display, electronic ink display, electrophoretic display, activematrix display, electro-wetting display, electrofluidic display, cathoderay tube display, light-emitting diode display, electroluminescentdisplay, plasma display panel, high-performance addressing display,thin-film transistor display, organic light-emitting diode display,surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED), laser television,carbon nanotubes, quantum dot display, interferometric modulatordisplay, or any other suitable equipment for displaying visual images.In some embodiments, display 612 may be HDTV-capable. In someembodiments, display 612 may be a 3D display, and the interactive mediaapplication and any suitable content may be displayed in 3D. A videocard or graphics card may generate the output to the display 612. Thevideo card may offer various functions such as accelerated rendering of3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or theability to connect multiple monitors. The video card may be anyprocessing circuitry described above in relation to control circuitry604. The video card may be integrated with the control circuitry 604.Speakers 614 may be provided as integrated with other elements of userequipment device 600 or may be stand-alone units. The audio component ofvideos and other content displayed on display 612 may be played throughspeakers 614. In some embodiments, the audio may be distributed to areceiver (not shown), which processes and outputs the audio via speakers614.

The guidance application may be implemented using any suitablearchitecture. For example, it may be a stand-alone applicationwholly-implemented on user equipment device 600. In such an approach,instructions of the application are stored locally (e.g., in storage608), and data for use by the application is downloaded on a periodicbasis (e.g., from an out-of-band feed, from an Internet resource, orusing another suitable approach). Control circuitry 604 may retrieveinstructions of the application from storage 608 and process theinstructions to generate any of the displays discussed herein. Based onthe processed instructions, control circuitry 604 may determine whataction to perform when input is received from input interface 610. Forexample, movement of a cursor on a display up/down may be indicated bythe processed instructions when input interface 610 indicates that anup/down button was selected.

In some embodiments, the media application is a client-server basedapplication. Data for use by a thick or thin client implemented on userequipment device 600 is retrieved on-demand by issuing requests to aserver remote to the user equipment device 600. In one example of aclient-server based guidance application, control circuitry 604 runs aweb browser that interprets web pages provided by a remote server. Forexample, the remote server may store the instructions for theapplication in a storage device. The remote server may process thestored instructions using circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 604) andgenerate the displays discussed above and below. The client device mayreceive the displays generated by the remote server and may display thecontent of the displays locally on equipment device 600. This way, theprocessing of the instructions is performed remotely by the server whilethe resulting displays are provided locally on equipment device 600.Equipment device 600 may receive inputs from the user via inputinterface 610 and transmit those inputs to the remote server forprocessing and generating the corresponding displays. For example,equipment device 600 may transmit a communication to the remote serverindicating that an up/down button was selected via input interface 610.The remote server may process instructions in accordance with that inputand generate a display of the application corresponding to the input(e.g., a display that moves a cursor up/down). The generated display isthen transmitted to equipment device 600 for presentation to the user.

In some embodiments, the media application is downloaded and interpretedor otherwise run by an interpreter or virtual machine (run by controlcircuitry 604). In some embodiments, the guidance application may beencoded in the ETV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF), received by controlcircuitry 604 as part of a suitable feed, and interpreted by a useragent running on control circuitry 604. For example, the guidanceapplication may be an EBIF application. In some embodiments, theguidance application may be defined by a series of JAVA-based files thatare received and run by a local virtual machine or other suitablemiddleware executed by control circuitry 604. In some of suchembodiments (e.g., those employing MPEG-2 or other digital mediaencoding schemes), the guidance application may be, for example, encodedand transmitted in an MPEG-2 object carousel with the MPEG audio andvideo packets of a program.

User equipment device 600 of FIG. 6 can be implemented in system 700 ofFIG. 7 as user television equipment 702, user computer equipment 704,wireless user communications device 706, or any other type of userequipment suitable for accessing content, such as a non-portable gamingmachine. For simplicity, these devices may be referred to hereincollectively as user equipment or user equipment devices, and may besubstantially similar to user equipment devices described above. Userequipment devices, on which a media application may be implemented, mayfunction as a standalone device or may be part of a network of devices.Various network configurations of devices may be implemented and arediscussed in more detail below.

A user equipment device utilizing at least some of the system featuresdescribed above in connection with FIG. 6 may not be classified solelyas user television equipment 702, user computer equipment 704, or awireless user communications device 706. For example, user televisionequipment 702 may, like some user computer equipment 704, beInternet-enabled allowing for access to Internet content, while usercomputer equipment 704 may, like some television equipment 702, includea tuner allowing for access to television programming. The mediaapplication may have the same layout on various different types of userequipment or may be tailored to the display capabilities of the userequipment. For example, on user computer equipment 704, the guidanceapplication may be provided as a web site accessed by a web browser. Inanother example, the guidance application may be scaled down forwireless user communications devices 706.

In system 700, there is typically more than one of each type of userequipment device but only one of each is shown in FIG. 7 to avoidovercomplicating the drawing. In addition, each user may utilize morethan one type of user equipment device and also more than one of eachtype of user equipment device.

In some embodiments, a user equipment device (e.g., user televisionequipment 702, user computer equipment 704, wireless user communicationsdevice 706) may be referred to as a “second screen device.” For example,a second screen device may supplement content presented on a first userequipment device. The content presented on the second screen device maybe any suitable content that supplements the content presented on thefirst device. In some embodiments, the second screen device provides aninterface for adjusting settings and display preferences of the firstdevice. In some embodiments, the second screen device is configured forinteracting with other second screen devices or for interacting with asocial network. The second screen device can be located in the same roomas the first device, a different room from the first device but in thesame house or building, or in a different building from the firstdevice.

The user may also set various settings to maintain consistent mediaapplication settings across in-home devices and remote devices. Settingsinclude those described herein, as well as channel and programfavorites, programming preferences that the guidance applicationutilizes to make programming recommendations, display preferences, andother desirable guidance settings. For example, if a user sets a channelas a favorite on, for example, the web site www.Tivo.com on theirpersonal computer at their office, the same channel would appear as afavorite on the user's in-home devices (e.g., user television equipmentand user computer equipment) as well as the user's mobile devices, ifdesired. Therefore, changes made on one user equipment device can changethe guidance experience on another user equipment device, regardless ofwhether they are the same or a different type of user equipment device.In addition, the changes made may be based on settings input by a user,as well as user activity monitored by the guidance application.

The user equipment devices may be coupled to communications network 714.Namely, user television equipment 702, user computer equipment 704, andwireless user communications device 706 are coupled to communicationsnetwork 714 via communications paths 708, 710, and 712, respectively.Communications network 714 may be one or more networks including theInternet, a mobile phone network, mobile voice or data network (e.g., a4G or LTE network), cable network, public switched telephone network, orother types of communications network or combinations of communicationsnetworks. Paths 708, 710, and 712 may separately or together include oneor more communications paths, such as, a satellite path, a fiber-opticpath, a cable path, a path that supports Internet communications (e.g.,IPTV), free-space connections (e.g., for broadcast or other wirelesssignals), or any other suitable wired or wireless communications path orcombination of such paths. Path 712 is drawn with dotted lines toindicate that in the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 7 it is awireless path and paths 708 and 710 are drawn as solid lines to indicatethey are wired paths (although these paths may be wireless paths, ifdesired). Communications with the user equipment devices may be providedby one or more of these communications paths, but are shown as a singlepath in FIG. 7 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Although communications paths are not drawn between user equipmentdevices, these devices may communicate directly with each other viacommunication paths, such as those described above in connection withpaths 708, 710, and 712, as well as other short-range point-to-pointcommunication paths, such as USB cables, IEEE 1394 cables, wirelesspaths (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE 802-11x, etc.), or othershort-range communication via wired or wireless paths. BLUETOOTH is acertification mark owned by Bluetooth SIG, INC. The user equipmentdevices may also communicate with each other directly through anindirect path via communications network 714.

System 700 includes content source 716 and media guidance data source718 coupled to communications network 714 via communication paths 720and 722, respectively. Paths 720 and 722 may include any of thecommunication paths described above in connection with paths 708, 710,and 712. Communications with the content source 716 and media guidancedata source 718 may be exchanged over one or more communications paths,but are shown as a single path in FIG. 7 to avoid overcomplicating thedrawing. In addition, there may be more than one of each of contentsource 716 and media guidance data source 718, but only one of each isshown in FIG. 7 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. (The differenttypes of each of these sources are discussed below.) If desired, contentsource 716 and media guidance data source 718 may be integrated as onesource device. Although communications between sources 716 and 718 withuser equipment devices 702, 704, and 706 are shown as throughcommunications network 714, in some embodiments, sources 716 and 718 maycommunicate directly with user equipment devices 702, 704, and 706 viacommunication paths (not shown) such as those described above inconnection with paths 708, 710, and 712.

Content source 716 may include one or more types of content distributionequipment including a television distribution facility, cable systemheadend, satellite distribution facility, programming sources (e.g.,television broadcasters, such as NBC, ABC, HBO, etc.), intermediatedistribution facilities and/or servers, Internet providers, on-demandmedia servers, and other content providers. NBC is a trademark owned bythe National Broadcasting Company, Inc., ABC is a trademark owned by theAmerican Broadcasting Company, Inc., and HBO is a trademark owned by theHome Box Office, Inc. Content source 716 may be the originator ofcontent (e.g., a television broadcaster, a Webcast provider, etc.) ormay not be the originator of content (e.g., an on-demand contentprovider, an Internet provider of content of broadcast programs fordownloading, etc.). Content source 716 may include cable sources,satellite providers, on-demand providers, Internet providers,over-the-top content providers, or other providers of content. Contentsource 716 may also include a remote media server used to storedifferent types of content (including video content selected by a user),in a location remote from any of the user equipment devices. Systems andmethods for remote storage of content, and providing remotely storedcontent to user equipment are discussed in greater detail in connectionwith Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,761,892, issued Jul. 20, 2010, whichis hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Media guidance data source 718 may provide media guidance data, such asthe media guidance data described above. Media guidance data may beprovided to the user equipment devices using any suitable approach. Insome embodiments, the guidance application may be a stand-aloneinteractive television program guide that receives program guide datavia a data feed (e.g., a continuous feed or trickle feed). Programschedule data and other guidance data may be provided to the userequipment on a television channel sideband, using an in-band digitalsignal, using an out-of-band digital signal, or by any other suitabledata transmission technique. Program schedule data and other mediaguidance data may be provided to user equipment on multiple analog ordigital television channels.

In some embodiments, guidance data from media guidance data source 718may be provided to users' equipment using a client-server approach. Forexample, a user equipment device may pull media guidance data from aserver, or a server may push media guidance data to a user equipmentdevice. In some embodiments, a guidance application client residing onthe user's equipment may initiate sessions with source 718 to obtainguidance data when needed, e.g., when the guidance data is out of dateor when the user equipment device receives a request from the user toreceive data. Media guidance may be provided to the user equipment withany suitable frequency (e.g., continuously, daily, a user-specifiedperiod of time, a system-specified period of time, in response to arequest from user equipment, etc.). Media guidance data source 718 mayprovide user equipment devices 702, 704, and 706 the media applicationitself or software updates for the media application.

In some embodiments, the media guidance data may include viewer data.For example, the viewer data may include current and/or historical useractivity information (e.g., what content the user typically watches,what times of day the user watches content, whether the user interactswith a social network, at what times the user interacts with a socialnetwork to post information, what types of content the user typicallywatches (e.g., pay TV or free TV), mood, brain activity information,etc.). The media guidance data may also include subscription data. Forexample, the subscription data may identify to which sources or servicesa given user subscribes and/or to which sources or services the givenuser has previously subscribed but later terminated access (e.g.,whether the user subscribes to premium channels, whether the user hasadded a premium level of services, whether the user has increasedInternet speed). In some embodiments, the viewer data and/or thesubscription data may identify patterns of a given user for a period ofmore than one year. The media guidance data may include a model (e.g., asurvivor model) used for generating a score that indicates a likelihooda given user will terminate access to a service/source. For example, themedia application may process the viewer data with the subscription datausing the model to generate a value or score that indicates a likelihoodof whether the given user will terminate access to a particular serviceor source. In particular, a higher score may indicate a higher level ofconfidence that the user will terminate access to a particular serviceor source. Based on the score, the media application may generatepromotions that entice the user to keep the particular service or sourceindicated by the score as one to which the user will likely terminateaccess.

Media applications may be, for example, stand-alone applicationsimplemented on user equipment devices. For example, the mediaapplication may be implemented as software or a set of executableinstructions which may be stored in storage 608, and executed by controlcircuitry 604 of a user equipment device 600. In some embodiments, mediaapplications may be client-server applications where only a clientapplication resides on the user equipment device, and server applicationresides on a remote server. For example, media applications may beimplemented partially as a client application on control circuitry 604of user equipment device 600 and partially on a remote server as aserver application (e.g., media guidance data source 718) running oncontrol circuitry of the remote server. When executed by controlcircuitry of the remote server (such as media guidance data source 718),the media application may instruct the control circuitry to generate theguidance application displays and transmit the generated displays to theuser equipment devices. The server application may instruct the controlcircuitry of the media guidance data source 718 to transmit data forstorage on the user equipment. The client application may instructcontrol circuitry of the receiving user equipment to generate theguidance application displays.

Content and/or media guidance data delivered to user equipment devices702, 704, and 706 may be over-the-top (OTT) content. OTT contentdelivery allows Internet-enabled user devices, including any userequipment device described above, to receive content that is transferredover the Internet, including any content described above, in addition tocontent received over cable or satellite connections. OTT content isdelivered via an Internet connection provided by an Internet serviceprovider (ISP), but a third party distributes the content. The ISP maynot be responsible for the viewing abilities, copyrights, orredistribution of the content, and may only transfer IP packets providedby the OTT content provider. Examples of OTT content providers includeYOUTUBE, NETFLIX, and HULU, which provide audio and video via IPpackets. YouTube is a trademark owned by Google Inc., Netflix is atrademark owned by Netflix Inc., and Hulu is a trademark owned by Hulu,LLC. OTT content providers may additionally or alternatively providemedia guidance data described above. In addition to content and/or mediaguidance data, providers of OTT content can distribute mediaapplications (e.g., web-based applications or cloud-based applications),or the content can be displayed by media applications stored on the userequipment device.

Media guidance system 700 is intended to illustrate a number ofapproaches, or network configurations, by which user equipment devicesand sources of content and guidance data may communicate with each otherfor the purpose of accessing content and providing media guidance. Theembodiments described herein may be applied in any one or a subset ofthese approaches, or in a system employing other approaches fordelivering content and providing media guidance. The following fourapproaches provide specific illustrations of the generalized example ofFIG. 7.

In one approach, user equipment devices may communicate with each otherwithin a home network. User equipment devices can communicate with eachother directly via short-range point-to-point communication schemesdescribed above, via indirect paths through a hub or other similardevice provided on a home network, or via communications network 714.Each of the multiple individuals in a single home may operate differentuser equipment devices on the home network. As a result, it may bedesirable for various media guidance information or settings to becommunicated between the different user equipment devices. For example,it may be desirable for users to maintain consistent media applicationsettings on different user equipment devices within a home network, asdescribed in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Publication No.2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005. Different types of user equipmentdevices in a home network may also communicate with each other totransmit content. For example, a user may transmit content from usercomputer equipment to a portable video player or portable music player.

In a second approach, users may have multiple types of user equipment bywhich they access content and obtain media guidance. For example, someusers may have home networks that are accessed by in-home and mobiledevices. Users may control in-home devices via a media applicationimplemented on a remote device. For example, users may access an onlinemedia application on a website via a personal computer at their office,or a mobile device such as a PDA or web-enabled mobile telephone. Theuser may set various settings (e.g., recordings, reminders, or othersettings) on the online guidance application to control the user'sin-home equipment. The online guide may control the user's equipmentdirectly, or by communicating with a media application on the user'sin-home equipment. Various systems and methods for user equipmentdevices communicating, where the user equipment devices are in locationsremote from each other, is discussed in, for example, Ellis et al., U.S.Pat. No. 8,046,801, issued Oct. 25, 2011, which is hereby incorporatedby reference herein in its entirety.

In a third approach, users of user equipment devices inside and outsidea home can use their media application to communicate directly withcontent source 716 to access content. Specifically, within a home, usersof user television equipment 702 and user computer equipment 704 mayaccess the media application to navigate among and locate desirablecontent. Users may also access the media application outside of the homeusing wireless user communications devices 706 to navigate among andlocate desirable content.

In a fourth approach, user equipment devices may operate in a cloudcomputing environment to access cloud services. In a cloud computingenvironment, various types of computing services for content sharing,storage or distribution (e.g., video sharing sites or social networkingsites) are provided by a collection of network-accessible computing andstorage resources, referred to as “the cloud.” For example, the cloudcan include a collection of server computing devices, which may belocated centrally or at distributed locations, that provide cloud-basedservices to various types of users and devices connected via a networksuch as the Internet via communications network 714. These cloudresources may include one or more content sources 716 and one or moremedia guidance data sources 718. In addition or in the alternative, theremote computing sites may include other user equipment devices, such asuser television equipment 702, user computer equipment 704, and wirelessuser communications device 706. For example, the other user equipmentdevices may provide access to a stored copy of a video or a streamedvideo. In such embodiments, user equipment devices may operate in apeer-to-peer manner without communicating with a central server.

The cloud provides access to services, such as content storage, contentsharing, or social networking services, among other examples, as well asaccess to any content described above, for user equipment devices.Services can be provided in the cloud through cloud computing serviceproviders, or through other providers of online services. For example,the cloud-based services can include a content storage service, acontent sharing site, a social networking site, or other services viawhich user-sourced content is distributed for viewing by others onconnected devices. These cloud-based services may allow a user equipmentdevice to store content to the cloud and to receive content from thecloud rather than storing content locally and accessing locally-storedcontent.

A user may use various content capture devices, such as camcorders,digital cameras with video mode, audio recorders, mobile phones, andhandheld computing devices, to record content. The user can uploadcontent to a content storage service on the cloud either directly, forexample, from user computer equipment 704 or wireless usercommunications device 706 having content capture feature. Alternatively,the user can first transfer the content to a user equipment device, suchas user computer equipment 704. The user equipment device storing thecontent uploads the content to the cloud using a data transmissionservice on communications network 714. In some embodiments, the userequipment device itself is a cloud resource, and other user equipmentdevices can access the content directly from the user equipment deviceon which the user stored the content.

Cloud resources may be accessed by a user equipment device using, forexample, a web browser, a media application, a desktop application, amobile application, and/or any combination of access applications of thesame. The user equipment device may be a cloud client that relies oncloud computing for application delivery, or the user equipment devicemay have some functionality without access to cloud resources. Forexample, some applications running on the user equipment device may becloud applications, i.e., applications delivered as a service over theInternet, while other applications may be stored and run on the userequipment device. In some embodiments, a user device may receive contentfrom multiple cloud resources simultaneously. For example, a user devicecan stream audio from one cloud resource while downloading content froma second cloud resource. Or a user device can download content frommultiple cloud resources for more efficient downloading. In someembodiments, user equipment devices can use cloud resources forprocessing operations such as the processing operations performed byprocessing circuitry described in relation to FIG. 6.

As referred herein, the term “in response to” refers to initiated as aresult of. For example, a first action being performed in response to asecond action may include interstitial steps between the first actionand the second action. As referred herein, the term “directly inresponse to” refers to caused by. For example, a first action beingperformed directly in response to a second action may not includeinterstitial steps between the first action and the second action.

FIG. 8 depicts an illustrative rules engine for identifying scoringopportunities in a fantasy sports matchup, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure. Rules engine 800 may be implemented bycontrol circuitry 604 (e.g., in a manner instructed to control circuitry604 by the media application). Control circuitry 604 may be part of userequipment (e.g., user equipment 100, which may have any or all of thefunctionality of user television equipment 702, user computer equipment704, and/or wireless communications device 706), or of a remote serverseparated from the user equipment by way of communication network 714,or distributed over a combination of both.

A rules engine uses, for example, a set of data structures and modulesto identify a user's scoring opportunities in a fantasy sports matchupthat pertain to the given scenarios of a live sporting match. Thegeneric nature of the rules engine allows the system to be customizedfor different scoring systems, different fantasy sports leagues, anddifferent sports (e.g., football, baseball, soccer, hockey). Thus, whilethe examples are described with reference to a fantasy sports leaguebased on NFL performances, the same teaching could be applied elsewhere.An exemplary set of data structures is illustrated in FIG. 9.

FIG. 9 depicts an illustrative set of data structures for defining ascoring system of a fantasy sports league. The scoring system is made upof collections of scoring rules, scoring roles, position-scoring rolelinks, and players.

A scoring rule data structure 900 comprises information that describes arule within a fantasy sport's league that gives a user in that leaguefantasy points. For example, a fantasy league for the NFL may provide auser with 1 point for every 10 rushing yards a player. The scoring rule900 includes, for example, the following fields: action; score type;point value; dynamic modifier; and scoring role. The action is a stringvalue, e.g., “run ball,” that provides a name for the rule. The scoretype provides an indication of whether the score is static or dynamic(e.g., a fixed value or derived value). The point value field stores afloat that is the value of the score for that rule or serves as aportion of a dynamic scoring rule. The dynamic modifier field stores anequation that is used to determine the final point value for a givenaction. For example, the dynamic modifier field may store an equationthat reads “point value*yards/10” for a score rule that is a userreceives 1 point for every 10 yards ran with the ball. The scoring roleis a string field that inuicates a role associated with the scoringrule, e.g., “rushing.”

The scoring role string field in the scoring rule data structure 900lines the scoring role with a scoring role as defined in scoring role910. For example, different scoring roles may exist under a givenscoring system. In one example, a scoring system may have scoring rolesof: “passing,” “rushing,” “miscellaneous,” “kicking,” and “defense.”Each role may be associated with a field indicating a scoring category,such as whether the role requires possession of a playing object, i.e.,offense or defense. The scoring roles are linked to positions using theposition role link data structure 915 which comprises a “scoring role”string linking to a scoring role data structure and a “position name”stored as a string. Using this link structure, multiple positions can belinked to the same scoring role which is linked to multiple scoringrules. Thus, the same rules can be applied to similarly situatedpositions, e.g., running back, halfback, and fullback. The datastructures of FIG. 9 also include a player data structure 920. Theplayer structure 920 includes a player id stored as, e.g., a globallyunique identifier, a player name stored as a string, a team name storedas a string, a jersey number stored as a string or alternatively as anumber, a list of positions the player is assigned, and, in some cases,a set of statistics related to the player's performance.

Rules engine 800 begins with category module 805. Using informationabout the current circumstances of a live sporting event, e.g., theteams in the live sporting event, the position of a playing object, theteam with possession of the playing object, the time remaining in thelive sporting event, the athletes on the playing surface, etc., thecategory module 805 determines scoring categories associated with activeplayers from a user's fantasy roster. For example, a media applicationusing control circuitry 604 implements the rule engine 800 and usesinformation that indicates which team has possession of the playingobject 803 (e.g., which team has possession of a football), along with alist of the users' active players 804 in the live sporting event, toextract a set of player scoring categories 806 for each active player.For example, the rules engine 800 may use data structures as describedin FIG. 9 to retrieve a set of scoring categories for the activeplayers.

Using the example from FIG. 1, if the user has the 49ers' running backand placekicker. then active players list 804 may comprise thoseplayers. Furthermore, the information about the live sporting event 803may comprise an indicator that the 49ers are in possession of thefootball, i.e., the 49ers are on offense. In this example, categorymodule 805 would identify offense as the scoring category for the user'srunning back and placekicker in the player scoring categories 806.

The player scoring categories 806 is used as input by the role module810 along with a list of position role links 808 to determine a set ofplayer scoring roles 813, i.e., a set of scoring roles associated withplayers on the user's roster. For example, in the example above, theuser has two active players, a 49ers' running back and 49ers'placekicker. Running backs are associated by a position role link with arushing role in an offensive playing category. Placekickers areassociated by a position role link with a kicking role in an offensiveplaying category. Using the list of player scoring categories 806 forthis example, the role module can locate a list of scoring roles 813 forthe running back, e.g., “rushing,” and for the placekicker, e.g.,“kicking.”

The scoring module 815 may use the information about the live sportingevent 803, list of scoring roles 813, and list of scoring rules 814 todetermine a list of scoring scenarios 816. For example, the scoringmodule 815 may determine, based on the 49ers having possession of thefootball on the 18-yard line, that the 49ers' running back has twoscoring scenarios and the placekicker has one scoring opportunity. Forexample, the running back may have a 1-point scoring opportunity if therunning back runs from the 18-yard line to at least the 8-yard line andmay have a 7-point scoring opportunity if the running back runs 18 yardsfor a touchdown. Also, the rules engine 800 may determine theplacekicker has a 3-point opportunity if he kicks a field goal (whichwould be for 35 yards under the NFL's criteria of adding 17 yards to theposition of the ball for field goals). The scoring scenarios 816 may beoutput to a target location module 820 that identifies a location on thefield of play that corresponds with each scoring scenario, e.g., thegoal post for the field goal, the 8-yard line for the 1-point run, andthe goal line for the 7-point run. The target location module 820generates a list of scoring opportunities 830 with a notation of thelocation of interest on the playing surface.

In some embodiments, the rules engine 800 also takes into accountwhether a player is on the field of play when identifying the list ofscoring opportunities. This can be achieved by several modules, such asthe scoring module 815 which may inspect the information about the livesporting event 803 to determine whether a player is on the field of playand remove any scoring opportunities that are associated with players onthe user's roster that are not on the active playing surface.

FIG. 10 depicts an illustrative set of scoring scenarios 1000 for afantasy football scoring system. In FIG. 10, positions list 1010includes eleven positions placed in a list of 5 scoring roles 1020. Theset of scoring scenarios include a list of 21 scoring actions 1030 withcorresponding point values 1040. The relationship between positions,scoring roles, scoring rules, and points is demonstrated by the set ofscoring scenarios 1000. For example, the data structures that define ascoring rule for rushing per 10 yards is demonstrated in FIG. 11.

FIG. 11 depicts a set of data structures for defining a scoring rule fora running rule in a fantasy football scoring system. In FIG. 11, ascoring rule 1100 defines a rule for the action “run ball” that is a“dynamic” score type. The point value for scoring rule 1100 is 1 pointand is modified by the equation “point value*yards/10”, i.e., the userreceives 1 point for every ten yards when the ball is run by a player.The scoring role is “rushing.” The scoring role 1110 defines the“rushing” role in a “offense” playing category. Position role link 1115links the “running back” position to the “rushing” scoring role 1110.FIG. 11 also depicts a player data structure 1120 for player ID“032149682”. Player 1120 is named “Jerick McKinnon,” plays for the “SanFrancisco 49ers,” and wears jersey number 28. The player is listed ashaving one position: “running back.” The player 1120 data structure mayalso include a list of statistics.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for generating a display ofinformation about fantasy sports scoring opportunities in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure. It should be noted that process1200 or any step thereof could be performed on, or provided by, any ofthe devices shown in FIGS. 6-7. For example, process 1200 may beexecuted by control circuitry 604 (FIG. 6) as instructed by a mediaapplication implemented on user equipment 702 in order to presenton-screen graphics. In addition, one or more steps of process 1200 maybe incorporated into or combined with one or more steps of any otherprocess or embodiment (e.g., process 1300 (FIG. 13)).

At step 1205, the control circuitry 604, using a media application,generates for display a video of a live sporting event. At step 1207,the control circuitry 604 retrieves, from a memory (e.g., storage 608(FIG. 6) or media content source 716 (FIG. 7) or from a remote server715), current status data of a fantasy sports event in which a user isparticipating. In some embodiments, the control circuitry 604 mayinstruct communication circuitry to retrieve the current status datafrom a remote source, e.g., a fantasy sports service provider such asDraftKings, Yahoo!, ESPN, or Fan Duel using a service API or by scrapingweb data. In some embodiments, the media application may inspectinformation provided by a media content source (e.g., content source 716(FIG. 7)) to obtain the current status data and store that informationin storage 608.

At step 1210, the control circuitry 604 identifies players from a rostermaintained by the user for the fantasy sports event. In someembodiments, the control circuitry 604 may identify all players on auser's fantasy sports roster. In some embodiments, the media applicationmay only identify the players that the user has set as active, forexample in a fantasy sports scenario in which a user selects a subset ofhis full roster for the well. In some embodiments, the control circuitry604 may identify only the players from the user's roster that areparticipating in the live sporting event. At step 1215, the controlcircuitry 604 obtains a set of rules, e.g., a set of rules definedaccording to data structures as described in FIG. 9, that define scoringopportunities in the fantasy sports event for the user as a function ofpossible actions and players in the sporting event. In some embodiments,the control circuitry 604 may use communication circuitry to obtain therules from a remote server (e.g., remote server 715) that housesinformation about the fantasy sports matchup or league. In someembodiments, the user may define the rules in a user input interface 610provided by a media application. At step 1220, the control circuitry 604obtains data representing the current circumstances of the live sportingevent. For example, the control circuitry 604 may obtain informationabout a football game from a remote server 715. In some embodiments, thecontrol circuitry 604 may obtain information about the live sportingevent from data transmitted along with the video of the sporting eventfrom a content source (e.g., media content source 716).

At step 1225, the control circuitry 604 applies the set of rules to thedata representing the current circumstances of the live sporting eventto identify possible scoring scenarios in the fantasy sports event. Forexample, the control circuitry 604 may run the set of rules, such asrules 812, through a rules engine, e.g., engine 800 of FIG. 8. In someembodiments, the control circuitry 604 also identifies locations on aplaying space of the live sporting event, e.g., an NFL football game,that correspond to the possible scoring scenarios. For example, thecontrol circuitry 604 may determine that a field goal is associated withthe field goal post, that a 10-yard run is associated with the 8-yardline, and that an 18-yard touchdown run is associated with the goalline.

At step 1230, the control circuitry 604 generates for display, with thevideo of the live sporting event, information about the possible scoringscenarios. For example, the control circuitry 604 may generate thefantasy sports information 120 (FIG. 1), fantasy sportd information 225(FIG. 2), or fantasy sports information 330 (FIG. 3). In someembodiments, the information may include identification of the locationson the playing space of the live sporting event that correspond to thepossible scoring scenarios.

In some embodiments, process 1200 may continue at step 1245, where thecontrol circuitry 604 determines whether a first scoring scenario in thepossible scoring scenarios would change the winner of the fantasy sportsevent. For example, if the user is losing a fantasy sports matchup by 4points, then a 5-point or greater swing would change the winner of theuser's fantasy sports matchup. Using information about the current stateof fantasy sports event, as described above, the control circuitry 604may determine that one of the possible scoring opportunities can providethe points necessary to change the winner of the fantasy sports matchup.At step 1250, the control circuitry 604 may, in response to determiningthat the first scoring scenario would change who leads the fantasysports event, emphasize the information about the first scoring scenarioin comparison to information about other possible scoring scenarios. Forexample, the control circuitry 604 may, as illustrated in FIG. 1, placea highlighting box 126 around the 18-point scoring opportunity or mayplace an emphasis icon 127 near the scoring opportunity.

In some embodiments, process 1200 may include steps for displayingscoring opportunities associated with a second user. At step 1260, thecontrol circuitry 604 may, using the techniques described above,identify a second set of possible scoring scenarios for a second userparticipating in the fantasy sports event. For example, a second usermay be watching the video of the live sporting event with another user.The control circuitry 604 may present an interface (using, e.g., userinput interface 610 and display 612) to the users to allow the users toidentify themselves, including information sufficient for the mediaapplication to determine the fantasy sports roster associated with theuser. In some embodiments, the control circuitry 604 may communicatewith a user's personal device, e.g., a user's mobile phone or tablet, toretrieve information identifying the user. Once the users areidentified, the control circuitry 604 may retrieve the rosters for theuser and identify scoring opportunities in a fantasy sports leagueassociated with each user. At step 1270, the control circuitry 604 maygenerate for display, with the video of the live sporting event,information about the second set of possible scoring scenarios,including identification associating the second set of possible scoringscenarios with the second user.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for mapping informationabout scoring opportunities onto video of a live sporting event inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. At step 1305, thecontrol circuitry 604 maps coordinates in the video of the live sportingevent to the locations on the playing space of the live sporting eventthat correspond to the possible scoring scenarios. For example, thecontrol circuitry 604 may determine that the current status informationof the live sporting event indicates the playing object is on the18-yard line. Using, for example, an image recognition module, thecontrol circuitry 604 may determine the x-y coordinates of the ball inthe video, e.g., video 105, of the live sporting event. Further, thecontrol circuitry 604 may use landmarks in the video of the livesporting event, e.g., the hash marks of a football field, to identifythe position on the football field. In some embodiments, the controlcircuitry 604 may identify, for example, yardage markers in the video toorient the playing surface with the video of the playing surface. Atstep 1310, the control circuitry 604 determines a graphical overlay forthe mapped locations on the playing space of the live sporting event toindicate the corresponding possible scoring scenarios. For example, thecontrol circuitry 604 may determine a graphical overlay 315 (FIG. 3) todisplay over a portion of the playing field on the video of the livesporting event. In step 1315, the control circuitry 604 modifies thevideo of the live sporting event to include the graphical overlay.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for emphasizing a player ona user's fantasy sports roster in video of a live sporting event inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. At step 1405, thecontrol circuitry 604 may determine a final player from the rostermaintained by the user for the fantasy sports event, wherein there areno other players on the roster that can impact who leads the fantasysports event. At step 1410, the control circuitry 604 tracks when thefinal player is active on the playing space of the live sporting event.At step 1415, the control circuitry 604 emphasizes the final player inthe video of the live sporting event as compared with other participantsof the live sporting event.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for providing a secondarydisplay device with information about scoring opportunities in a fantasysporting event in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. Atstep 1505, the control circuitry 604 may establish communication, using,e.g., communication circuitry, with a secondary display device, e.g.,goggles 220. At step 1510, the control circuitry 104 may provide thesecondary display device with the information about the possible scoringscenarios for display on the secondary display device.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for displaying informationabout statistics of a player on a user's fantasy sports roster relatedto a scoring opportunity that the player could satisfy. At step 1605,the control circuitry 604 analyzes a first of the possible scoringscenarios to determine a player participating in the live sporting eventwhose performance could satisfy the first possible scoring scenario. Atstep 1610, the control circuitry 604 may retrieve statistics of thedetermined player relevant to the first possible scoring scenario. Atstep 1615, the control circuitry 604 generates for display, with theinformation about the possible scoring scenarios, information about thestatistics of the determined player.

FIG. 17 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for emphasizing a selectedplayer in a video of a live sporting event. At step 1705, the controlcircuitry 604 receives a selection of a possible scoring scenario from auser. At step 1710, the control circuitry 604 analyzes the selectedpossible scoring scenarios to determine a player participating in thelive sporting event whose performance could satisfy the first possiblescoring scenario. At step 1715, the control circuitry 604, in the videoof the live sporting event, emphasizes the determined player.

FIG. 18 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for updating the scoringopportunities based on changed circumstances in a live sporting event.At step 1805, the control circuitry 604 tracks a playing object in thevideo of the live sporting event. At step 1810, the control circuitry604 determines that the current circumstances of the live sporting eventare changed, based on a current location of the playing object incomparison to a previous location of the playing object. At step 1815,the control circuitry 604 applies the set of rules to data representingthe changed circumstance of the live sporting event to identify updatedscoring scenarios in the fantasy sports event. At step 1820, the controlcircuitry 604 generates for display, with the video of the live sportingevent, information about the updated scoring scenarios.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of each of FIGS. 12-18may be used with any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition,the steps and descriptions described in relation to FIGS. 12-18 may bedone in alternative orders or in parallel to further the purposes ofthis disclosure. For example, each of these steps may be performed inany order or in parallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lagor increase the speed of the system or method. Furthermore, it should benoted that any of the devices or equipment discussed in relation toFIGS. 1-7 could be used to perform one or more of the steps in FIGS.12-18.

It will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that methodsinvolved in the present invention may be embodied in a computer programproduct that includes a computer-usable and/or -readable medium. Forexample, such a computer-usable medium may consist of a read-only memorydevice, such as a CD-ROM disk or conventional ROM device, or arandom-access memory, such as a hard drive device or a computerdiskette, having a computer-readable program code stored thereon. Itshould also be understood that methods, techniques, and processesinvolved in the present disclosure may be executed using processingcircuitry. For instance, determining a position of a user may beperformed, e.g., by processing circuitry 606 of FIG. 6. The processingcircuitry, for instance, may be a general-purpose processor, acustomized integrated circuit (e.g., an ASIC), or a field-programmablegate array (FPGA) within user equipment 702, media content source 716,or media guidance data source 718. For example, a profile, as describedherein, may be stored in, and retrieved from, storage 608 of FIG. 6, ormedia guidance data source 718 of FIG. 7. Furthermore, processingcircuitry, or a computer program, may update settings of user equipment100 stored within storage 608 of FIG. 6 or media guidance data source718 of FIG. 7.

The processes discussed above are intended to be illustrative and notlimiting. One skilled in the art would appreciate that the steps of theprocesses discussed herein may be omitted, modified, combined, and/orrearranged, and any additional steps may be performed without departingfrom the scope of the invention. More generally, the above disclosure ismeant to be exemplary and not limiting. Only the claims that follow aremeant to set bounds as to what the present invention includes.Furthermore, it should be noted that the features and limitationsdescribed in any one embodiment may be applied to any other embodimentherein, and flowcharts or examples relating to one embodiment may becombined with any other embodiment in a suitable manner, done indifferent orders, or done in parallel. In addition, the systems andmethods described herein may be performed in real time. It should alsobe noted, the systems and/or methods described above may be applied to,or used in accordance with, other systems and/or methods.

While some portions of this disclosure may make reference to“convention,” any such reference is merely for the purpose of providingcontext to the invention(s) of the instant disclosure, and does not formany admission as to what constitutes the state of the art.

It should also be noted that although some embodiments of thisdisclosure relate to the use of a media application to presentinformation about scoring opportunities in a fantasy sports contest to auser, the media application may be used to present information aboutscoring opportunities related to other side-game contests outside thefantasy sports context. For example, in some embodiments, the mediaapplication may access a user profile to determine that a user may beinvolved in a side-game related to outcome of a horse race (e.g., havingplaced a wager on a trifecta) that is not associated with a fantasysports team of a user. In some embodiments, users may be involved inside-games related to electronic sports, i.e., “eSports,” events such asfirst person action or multiplayer online battle areana games.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: retrieving current statusdata related to a side-game, wherein the current status data is based onan event presented in a content item, and the current status datacomprises a roster, maintained by a participant in the side-game, ofplayers in the event, and wherein determining, based on the currentstatus data, the plurality of possible scoring scenarios that affect theside-game comprises: obtaining a set of rules that define scoringopportunities in the side-game as a function of possible actions andplayers in the roster; obtaining data representing current circumstancesof the event; and applying the set of rules to the data representing thecurrent circumstances of the event to identify the plurality of possiblescoring scenarios in the side-game and locations on a playing space ofthe event that correspond to the plurality of possible scoringscenarios; determining, based on the current status data, a plurality ofpossible scoring scenarios that affect the side-game; generating forsimultaneous display (i) information about each of the plurality ofpossible scoring scenarios that affects the side-game and (ii) thecontent item, wherein generating for simultaneous display comprises:mapping coordinates in the content item to locations on a playing spaceof the event that correspond to one of the plurality of possible scoringscenarios that determines a winner of the side game; determining agraphical overlay for the mapped locations on the playing space of theevent to indicate the corresponding possible scoring scenarios; andmodifying the content item to include the graphical overlay; andemphasizing, based on the plurality of possible scoring scenarios to theside game, the information about one of the possible scoring scenariosof the plurality of possible scoring scenarios.
 2. The method of claim1, further comprising: determining a player active in the playing spaceof the event can satisfy the one of the possible scoring scenarios; andemphasizing, in the content item, the player.
 3. The method of claim 1,further comprising: determining a final player remaining in the rosteris active in the playing space of the event; and emphasizing the finalplayer in the content item.
 4. The method of claim 3, whereinemphasizing the final player comprises generating for display an iconindicating the importance of the final player to the side-game.
 5. Themethod of claim 1, wherein emphasizing, based on the effects of theplurality of possible scoring scenarios to the side game, theinformation about the plurality of possible scoring scenarios comprises:determining that the one of the possible scoring scenario changes wholeads the side-game; and emphasizing the information about the one ofthe possible scoring scenarios.
 6. The method of claim 5, whereinemphasizing the information about the one of the possible scoringscenarios comprises generating for display the information about the oneof the possible scoring scenarios in at least one of a different color,text size, or special markings than used to generate for displayinformation about other possible scoring scenarios of the plurality ofpossible scoring scenarios.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein thecontent item is a first content item and the side-game is further basedon an event presented in a second content item, further comprising:determining the event in the second content item has a greater impact tothe side-game than the event in the first content item; and generatingfor display the second content item.
 8. The method of claim 7, whereingenerating for display the second content item comprises generating forsimultaneous display the second content item in a primary position andthe first content item in a secondary position.
 9. A system comprising:control circuitry configured to: retrieve current status data related toa side-game, wherein the current status data is based on an eventpresented in a content item, and the current status data comprises aroster, maintained by a participant in the side-game, of players in theevent, and wherein determining, based on the current status data, theplurality of possible scoring scenarios that affect the side-gamecomprises: obtaining a set of rules that define scoring opportunities inthe side-game as a function of possible actions and players in theroster; obtaining data representing current circumstances of the event;and applying the set of rules to the data representing the currentcircumstances of the event to identify the plurality of possible scoringscenarios in the side-game and locations on a playing space of the eventthat correspond to the plurality of possible scoring scenarios; anddetermine, based on the current status data, a plurality of possiblescoring scenarios that affect the side-game; output circuitry configuredto generate for simultaneous display (i) information about each of theplurality of possible scoring scenarios that affects the side-game and(ii) the content item, wherein generating for simultaneous displaycomprises: mapping coordinates in the content item to locations on aplaying space of the event that correspond to one of the plurality ofpossible scoring scenarios that determines a winner of the side game;determining a graphical overlay for the mapped locations on the playingspace of the event to indicate the corresponding possible scoringscenarios; and modifying the content item to include the graphicaloverlay; and the control circuitry further configured to emphasize,based on the plurality of possible scoring scenarios to the side game,the information about one of the possible scoring scenarios of theplurality of possible scoring scenarios.
 10. The system of claim 9,wherein the control circuitry is further configured to: determine aplayer active in the playing space of the event can satisfy the one ofthe possible scoring scenarios; and emphasize, in the content item, theplayer.
 11. The system of claim 9, wherein the control circuitry isfurther configured to: determine a final player remaining in the rosteris active in the playing space of the event; and emphasize the finalplayer in the content item.
 12. The system of claim 11, wherein thecontrol circuitry is configured to emphasize the final player bygenerating for display an icon indicating the importance of the finalplayer to the side-game.
 13. The system of claim 9, wherein the controlcircuitry is configured to emphasize, based on the effects of theplurality of possible scoring scenarios to the side game, theinformation about the plurality of possible scoring scenarios by:determining that the one of the possible scoring scenario changes wholeads the side-game; and emphasizing the information about the one ofthe possible scoring scenarios.
 14. The system of claim 13, wherein thecontrol circuitry is configured to emphasize the information about theone of the possible scoring scenarios by generating for display theinformation about the one of the possible scoring scenarios in at leastone of a different color, text size, or special markings than used togenerate for display information about other possible scoring scenariosof the plurality of possible scoring scenarios.
 15. The system of claim9, wherein the content item is a first content item and the side-game isfurther based on an event presented in a second content item, andwherein the control circuitry is further configured to: determine theevent in the second content item has a greater impact to the side-gamethan the event in the first content item; and the output circuitry isfurther configured to generate for display the second content item. 16.The system of claim 15, wherein the output circuitry is configured togenerate for display the second content item by generating forsimultaneous display the second content item in a primary position andthe first content item in a secondary position.